This article concerns people displaced across borders, not travel undertaken to obtain treatment. For the latter see Medical tourism.
| Verified against primary record | |
| 1951 Convention, Article 23 | Same treatment in public relief and assistance as nationals[1] |
|---|---|
| EU temporary protection | Medical care to include at least emergency care and essential treatment of illness[2] |
| Records read | Treaty and directive texts, 30 September 2026 |
| Independently reported | |
| Nature of the entitlement | Access within the host state, not a right to travel for treatment |
| Bands apply only to the rows beneath them. These instruments create obligations on host states towards people already present; none of them concerns travelling abroad to buy care. No provider-supplied figures are used. | |
Refugee access to cross-border healthcare concerns the healthcare entitlements of people who have crossed a border because they were displaced, not because they sought treatment. The distinction is structural rather than presentational: the instruments below oblige a host state to provide care to people within its territory, and none of them creates a right to travel to another country for treatment.
The entitlement
Article 23 of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees provides that contracting states shall accord to refugees lawfully staying in their territory the same treatment with respect to public relief and assistance as is accorded to their nationals.[1] Article 24 extends equal treatment to matters of labour legislation and social security, though the provision on sickness benefits within that article could not be read in full for this entry.[1]
Within the European Union, Council Directive 2001/55/EC on temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons provides that the assistance necessary for medical care shall include at least emergency care and essential treatment of illness.[2] Article 13(4) requires member states to provide necessary medical or other assistance to persons enjoying temporary protection who have special needs, such as unaccompanied minors or persons who have undergone torture, rape or other serious forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence.[2]
The standard applying to applicants for international protection, as distinct from those under temporary protection, could not be established for this entry. The provision long cited for it sat in Directive 2013/33/EU, which a 2024 recast repeals for bound member states with effect from 12 June 2026, and the replacement text could not be retrieved on 30 September 2026. This entry therefore states no current standard for that group rather than citing a provision that may no longer apply.
Documented barriers
The World Health Organization’s world report on the health of refugees and migrants identifies barriers including precarious legal status, discrimination, and social, cultural, linguistic, administrative and financial obstacles, together with a lack of information about health entitlements.[3] An entitlement in law and access in practice are not the same thing, and the report is framed as an advocacy tool for policymakers rather than as a measurement of the gap between them.
The organisation’s global action plan on promoting the health of refugees and migrants was presented to the World Health Assembly in 2019 and its time frame later extended to 2030.[4] A 2026 monitoring report describes itself as the first global baseline for assessing implementation of that plan, drawing on a global survey completed by 93 member states in early 2025.[4]
Related terms
Refugee is a legally defined status; asylum applicant and beneficiary of temporary protection are separate categories with separate entitlements. Humanitarian medical transfer describes moving a patient across a border for treatment, which is an operational programme rather than an entitlement, and is a different subject from the access rights described here.
See also
- Humanitarian medical transfers, moving patients across borders as an operation rather than an entitlement
- Cross-border healthcare, the EU legal category, which is about insured persons rather than displaced people
- Medical travel and language barriers, one of the barriers this literature identifies
- Medical tourism and health equity, the wider distributional frame
References
- United Nations. Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Articles 23 and 24. Adopted 28 July 1951, entered into force 22 April 1954. Verified against primary record: treaty text opened and read on an official United Nations host. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
- Council of the European Union. Council Directive 2001/55/EC of 20 July 2001 on minimum standards for giving temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons, Article 13. Verified against primary record: text opened and read. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
- World Health Organization. World report on the health of refugees and migrants. 20 July 2022. Independently reported: the publication record and overview were read, not the report body. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
- World Health Organization. WHO global action plan on promoting the health of refugees and migrants, 2019 to 2030, and World report on promoting the health of refugees and migrants: Monitoring progress, 26 March 2026. Independently reported: publication records and overviews only. Retrieved 30 September 2026.
Sourcing note: the 1951 Convention and the temporary protection directive were opened and read on 30 September 2026, though Article 24(1)(b) of the Convention, which covers sickness, could not be read in full. The World Health Organization material was read at the level of publication records and overviews, not report bodies. The standard applying to applicants for international protection is deliberately omitted: the provision usually cited was repealed for bound member states with effect from 12 June 2026 and the replacement could not be retrieved, so stating it would risk stating law that is no longer in force. Assembly decision numbers for the global action plan were not verified and are not given.